Wednesday, April 3rd
Weather has not been lovely of late, prompting my lazy self-comfort-preservation. In response to encouraging comments, yes, I do absolutely want to start changing my own oil. It seems like one of those things everyone should be able to do, which makes me think I'll somehow blow my car up. Ugh. Ended the sentence with a preposition. Hate that.
Watched a video about home oil change. People appear to have nice, flat, paved driveways, or really awesome, tool-stuffed garages in the world of people who got the acts together at the right age. Also, apparently, I will need to have some kind of collection equipment with which to collect the oil drained from my car. Oooh, my popcorn bowl is suddenly not good enough for vehicular by-products. And I admit, pouring the used motor oil down the toilet is probably not the earth-friendly option.
I don't know if I'll have the time to do an oil change myself in the course of this project, but I've kinda got a fire lit under me about it now. The fire of I-want-to-save-myself-a-few-bucks. Gotta look into how much it would cost to get some of those mini-one-wheel-size ramps. I know I really don't need them, and can't really afford them anyway, but I also know that if I can't take a few hours staring at the parts of the car involved, I'm gonna make a mistake. And I've kind of freaked myself out with a minor comment in one of the things I read that said that used motor oil is a carcinogen. I'm picturing working away, and a little drop falls on my finger, and boom, 3 days later, I die of finger cancer.
Maybe laziness isn't really the issue. Maybe it's Pre-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. You know, cowardice.
-Mike
you're probably tired of my suggestions by now, so I'll make one more. If you've got some scrap wood around, you can make a "ramp". just run each tire up on a piece of wood or 2 to get it high enough to get your head under the car. I have the Hyundai XG350l, which is kind of low, but I can change the oil w/o putting it on ramps/blocks/lifts of any kind.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to study where the drain plug is and make sure that you approach it from the direction that will not encourage the used oil to run down your arm. good luck
Thanks, Mick. I was wondering if that was feasible, but I gotta say, I don't trust my instincts when it comes to the mechanical world. I'll probably give it a try in a few weeks when the weather gets a little better.
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